AN: FINALLY THE NASTY ONE HAS COME BACK TO FANFICTION!

That's right guys, I'm back and this time with a fresh new story idea involving a different game than "XCOM". It's one involving the spiritual remake of the original "XCOM: UFO Defense" entitled "Xenonauts" by Goldhawk Interactive. I was reading a story on here by "The Xenonaut Project" by Captain Fumbles on the site that seemed really interesting and I was sad to see it hadn't been updated in almost two years. So I decided to take my own shot at it to see how well it would be received by the community.

I'm playing this game moderately modded with the following mods being in use: Skitso's Map Pack, Larger Living Quarters, Reinforcements, Barley Troops, The_Horde, SteelGonads Names of the World, Better Foxtrot, Enhanced Crash Sites, Full Soviet Weapons Extension Pack, Geograhic Addition, Instant Grenades, Khall's More Portraits, Khall's Tundra Tileset, Random Map Pack Arctic Collection, Random Map Pack Desert Style, Random Map Pack Farm Edition, SteelGonads Soviet Names, SteelGonads Tuganames, and SteelGonads Yugonames. If you want to know what these mods do, look them up on the Steam workshop because that would make this an extremely lengthy chapter introduction.

Without any further interruptions, let's begin the story!

Chapter 1: They're Back

'It was a mistake to think that they would just leave us alone after the Iceland Incident back in '58 . Now they're back and the world isn't ready to fight them. We're the only ones capable of fighting back. It's time to defend our homes and keep the innocent safe. Let's lock and load!'

These were the thoughts of the person known only as "The Commander". Nobody knew much about him and that's the way he liked it to be. He was in charge of the Xenonaut project which was initialized near the end of the 1950s after the Iceland Incident where all of the attackers of a joint NATO and Soviet taskforce were killed trying to secure a crashed UFO. The only survivors were the wounded that had been pulled off the battlefield prior to the final assault, and the command post where the leading NATO and Soviet officers were set up. The governments of the world had pooled their resources to found the Xenonaut project which was created with the sole purpose of defending against a possible alien invasion. The project was initially extensive with bases all over the world, however after over two decades of no contact all of the bases were shut down and dismantled save for one located on a small island that was just south of Greece technically owned by the United Arab Emirates. That particular base was chosen because it was not located in a country loyal to either NATO or the Soviet Union in a world still going through the Cold War.

The base aptly named "Sandtrap" was located on pretty much a desert island that experienced the same climate as the deserts located in Africa and the Middle East. The continuous budget costs had left the base on a skeleton crew of ten scientists, ten engineers, three pilots, two fighter crafts, one troop dropship, and a few analysts stationed throughout the various base facilities.

The Commander had been sitting down and enjoying a late evening drink when the television he was watching flashed a news headline showing various nations' air squadrons being destroyed by numerous UFOs that had made their presence known announcing the aliens intent to invade Earth for whatever reason. Knowing what this meant he made his way to his office to make requests for more equipment and he was sure that he'd receive no opposition this time around.

== Four Hours Later ==

Around 4 AM EST, the Commander had finally finished the last of the requisition forms he needed to fill out. He'd ordered for the construction of new facilities that would keep the engineers busy for awhile which included a second living quarters, a second radar array to extend their coverage of the skies, a missile battery to defend the base against a possible attack, and a medical center to help fix up any wounds the soldiers under his command would no doubt receive defending against this invasion. Speaking of soldiers he'd put in a request for five more so he'd have some more on standby in case his current group received any injuries. And to round it off he'd requested for five more scientists to help the ten already on staff that were working on compiling a detailed account of the alien invasion's first step twenty one years ago almost to the day.

He was preparing to take a nap, when his phone rang. This immediately got his attention as it was only connected to the base and not the outside world. Dreading what he was going to hear, he picked it up and answered.

"Go for The Commander." he greeted gruffly.

"Sorry for keeping you up this late sir, but the radar has picked up contact you better get down here." said a radar technician named O'Reilly who the base staff had taken to calling "Radar".

After taking a quick walk from his office, through the command center and over to the Radar Array he approached the screen that "Radar" was currently staring at. Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly was a very short individual only standing at 5' 5'', and weighing maybe 150 lbs, but he was the best radar worker the base had despite his young age of only 20. He was bespectacled wearing round frame brown glasses, with a small knit cap on his head which covered his curly red hair.

"Sorry for waking you sir. But as you can see the aliens have stumbled onto our hunting grounds." he said nervously as he indicated the screen showing the UFO flying over Northern Africa.

"Any idea on the UFO size or heading?"

"Appears to be a small UFO, heading to the East, and is approximately at an altitude of 1600 M, and is heading at approximately 1400 KM/H."

"How can you determine all of that Radar?"

"Trade secret, sir."

"Figures. All right, so first contact is on September 1, 1979 at approximately 4 AM EST. Dispatch Condor #1, callsign "Spitfire" and let's take them down."

"Understood sir." said Radar as he made his way over to the intercom to make the announcement.

"Ryan, we've got a bogey for you to chase down. Suit up and prepare for takeoff in five. Soldiers suit up and be ready to leave in under half an hour, Charlie-1 is in hangar one ready for launch."

"Now all we can do is sit back and wait for what's going to happen." said the Commander as the two watched the screen as the Condor piloted by Ryan Jensen chased the UFO down over Sudan and managed to down it in the middle of the desert a few kilometers south of Khartoum. With the location found out, the Commander gave the go-ahead for the squad to be deployed to the crash site. Less than ten minutes later the dropship was en route to secure the crashed UFO and the surrounding site.

== Three Hours Later ==

Charlie-1 was en route and preparing to touch down at the crash site where it's ten passengers would be disembarking to attempt to secure the first alien aircraft that was reasonably intact. Said passengers were all sitting in the back engrossed in their own conversations as they were heading towards their first combat against the extraterrestrial menace. The ten people were sitting with five people on each side of the dropship. Eight were sitting in between the aircraft's ramp, and the side exit doors across from one another in their own groups of four, while the other two members were sitting behind the side doors and against the wall separating the cockpit from the area they were at across from each other.

Among the ten soldiers, there existed five class designations that were represented by at least one soldier. The first class was the standard Rifleman class, these individuals were equipped with an M16 assault rifle, which featured the ability to switch from semi-automatic fire to burst fire, a backpack containing a medical kit, and a Beretta 92SB semi-automatic pistol, and their belts were equipped with two rifle magazines, two pistol magazines, and two fragmentation. frag. grenades.

The second class was the Scout class, which were equipped with the same items as the Rifleman class, but the members of this class had higher mobility and agility than the Riflemen themselves.

The third class was the assault class which was equipped with a Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun, only a medical kit in their backpack, and they had four frag grenades, and two boxes of shotgun shells on their belts.

Class number four was the Heavy Weapons class which had the person carrying an FN MAG light machine gun, a medical kit in their backpack, and two machine gun magazines wrapped up on their belts.

The final class was the Sniper class which was equipped with a H & K MSG 90 sniper rifle, with one medical kit and a Beretta 92SB in their backpacks, with two frag grenades and two sniper rifle magazines on their belts.

Among this group of ten there were two Scouts, four Riflemen, one Assault, one Heavy Weapons, and two Snipers.

Starting from the right side of the dropship the soldiers in question were, Cpl. Cesar Martín, Cpl. Manuel Ruiz, Sgt. Alexis Martín, Cpl. Cian Fitzpatrick, and Cpl. Anna Rivera was the lone member in the back behind the side door.

Cpl. Cesar Martín was a thirty-five year old male from Chile that had been recruited out of the Comandos De Aviacíon (Airborne Commandos). He stood at 6' 1'' and had short brown hair that was trimmed down via buzzcut. He was one of the Scouts due to his high agility despite being the oldest soldier in the unit.

Cpl. Manuel Ruiz was twenty-two years old and from Argentina. He had been a member of the Comandos Anfibios, (Amphibious Commandos, their special forces), before he was recruited into the Xenonauts project. He stood at 6' 2'' and had medium length blonde hair that he parted right down the center of his scalp. He was the squad's Assault trooper as he had terrible accuracy, but made up for it with high mobility.

Sgt. Alexis Martín was the squad leader for the mission as he had the longest tenure with the Xenonauts project. He was also from Argentina and a member of the Comandos Anfibios, but served before Manuel joined them. Needless to say that the two were fast friends being from the same country and unit. Alexis was twenty nine years old, stood at 6' 2'', and had short brown hair, but thick sideburns that almost reached below his ears. He was also the leader of the Riflemen.

Cpl. Cian Fitzpatrick was as his name suggested from Ireland. He served previously in the Army Rangers Wing of the Irish army, and was a stereotypical Irish person. He loved to drink, had red hair, freckles all across his face, and was short standing only at 5' 11''. Needless to say he was called a Leprechaun a whole bunch by the squad. Cian was 27 years old, had his red hair trimmed down in a buzzcut, and was the second of the squad's Riflemen.

Cpl. Anna Rivera was the lone American member of the squad and served in the Airborne. She was twenty one years old making her the youngest in the squad, stood at 5' 7'', and had brown hair that was styled into a short bob with a part on the left side of her head. She was one of the squad's Snipers having the best accuracy in the entire unit.

The other five members sitting on the left side were in order: Cpl. Danijela Begovic, Cpl. Daniel Dixon, Cpl. Miyu Ikeda, Cpl. Andrey Androv, and Cpl. Rafael Brandis was the lone member sitting across from Rivera.

Cpl. Danijela Begovic was from Yugoslavia and was a part of the 32nd Marines known as the "Shadows" before joining the Xenonauts team. She was twenty seven years old, stood at 6' 0'' flat, and had her long brown hair pulled back into a braid with a purple ribbon attached to it at the bottom. Begovic was the other assigned Scout having the second highest mobility behind Cesar. Begovic was also carrying an AK-47 and a Makarov semi-automatic pistol as she was more accustomed to the Soviet made weapons than their NATO counterparts.

Cpl. Daniel Dixon was one of two soldiers in the squad whom had seen combat prior to this mission. Dixon himself was Australian and was a part of the Royal Australian Regiment that had seen action in Borneo against local militants. He was thirty one years old, stood at 6' 5'' and had muscles on top of muscles. He also possessed curly reddish-brown hair, and had a thick beard and moustache to match. Dixon was the perfect candidate for the Heavy Weapons class as he was by far the strongest soldier, and was also best friends with Fitzpatrick. The two were seen challenging each other to drinking contests all the time, which Dixon normally won thanks to his larger frame.

Cpl. Miyu Ikeda was the third and final female member of the squad and was from Japan where she served in the 1st Airborne Brigade. Ikeda was thirty five years old making her the same age as Cesar, stood at 5' 6'', and had her black hair stylized into a longer bob cut w/ her bangs parted across her forehead towards her right side. She was the third of the squad's Riflemen. Miyu was also very quiet and rarely talked with the others unless they asked her opinion on something.

Cpl. Andrey Androv was the other combat veteran in the squad and hailed from the Soviet Union where he was a part of their Airborne or VDV which saw combat in Ethiopia. Androv was 6' 3'', twenty seven years old, and had long messy brown hair with a matching thick moustache. Androv like Begovic was also utilizing the AK-47 and Makarov because he was more familiar with them due to his past combat experience and his distrust of the NATO-made weapons. He was the fourth and final member of the Riflemen.

The final member of the squad was Cpl. Rafael Brandis who hailed from Switzerland where he was in their AA division. (Not sure what this is, if anyone could let me know that'd be awesome.) Rafael is twenty-two years old, stands at 6' 0'', has short messy blonde hair and a light 5 o'clock shadow. He was the squad's other Sniper boasting the second best accuracy behind Rivera.

It was 7 AM EST on the dot, and Martín, (I'm referring to Alexis, Cesar will be called by his first name unless Alexis is not on the mission or killed), got the squad's attention by raising his hand for silence.

"Alright everyone this is it. The aliens are back, but this time we're prepared with better weapons and equipment so we should be able to kill them and send a message. I want all of you to remember your training and everyone should make it out of this alive. Good luck out there and Godspeed. Any questions?"

"Where are we heading?" asked Rivera.

"We're landing in the middle of the desert near no civilizations, so civilians shouldn't be encountered. If it moves kill it."

"Those are some orders I can get behind." replied Begovic.

"Any numbers on how many survived?" asked Cesar.

"Negative. So be prepared for anything I'm sure some died in the crash, but not sure how many were there to begin with."

"Why's Cian still asleep?" asked Miyu in her quiet and mouse-like voice.

"Is he?!" asked Martín as he looked to his left and sure enough the Irishman was still sleeping soundly as if nothing could awaken him.

"Oh I'll take that one. Me and Leprechaun over there went had a drinking contest and as you can see I won. He's still probably passed out." answered Dixon as the rest of the squad sweatdropped.

"How're we going to wake him up?" asked Ruiz.

"Like this." said Dixon as he looked at Fitzpatrick.

"Hey Leprechaun! The aliens are attacking!" shouted the Australian, as the Irishman quickly woke up and cocked his weapon, before grabbing his head from the pain of the hangover migraine that hit him full-force.

"Fuck you Dixon! How're you not plastered like me. You easily had at least twice as me?!"

"I'm just the better drinker Leprechaun."

"Why you tosspot!" exclaimed the Irishman as h again reached out to throttle Dixon, but fell over due to the hangover pain.

"These are the best NATO had to offer, may God have mercy on us all." said Androv as he looked on disgusted at the two's antics.

"Nobody asked your opinion Russkie." replied Dixon in an angered tone.

"What'd you just call me?" said Androv as he stood up as if to engage Dixon in an altercation which caused Dixon to stand up as well. However, before either could make a move, Alexis and Rafael restrained them before they could kill each other.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm to hurt something, but turn it against the aliens and not each other!" scolded Martín.

"Yeah ain't you two heard the old proverb, the enemy of my enemy is my friend?" asked Rafael to the two of them.

"Yeah and I believe that it is how you people call it bullshit!" replied Andrey.

"O well, I tried to play peacekeeper. You two can figure this out for yourselves." replied Rafael as he walked back to his seat.

"Really you aren't going to side with either one of us mate?" asked Dixon.

"I'm from Switzerland, we're neutral with everyone." replied Rafael matter-of-factly as the lights changed from green to red signifying that they were preparing to land.

"Everyone lock and load, it's time to party!" said Alexis as the aircraft touched down and the ramp and doors opened as the soldiers got ready to face what was on the ground.

== On the Ground (7:05 AM EST) ==

It may have been early morning over on the Eastern shore of the United States, but in the Sudan it was the middle of the afternoon and the temperature was scorching hot reaching well up over 110 °F which had a majority of the squad sweating before even exiting the aircraft.

"Motherfucker this weather is killing me and we haven't even started moving yet." complained Begovic as she prepared to exit the craft.

"Shut it, and move!" exclaimed Martín as both she and Cesar advanced forward into the desert. She found some cover behind a pile of rocks directly in front of the ramp, while Cesar was to her right behind a cactus of all things. She looked to her left and saw nothing but sand and looked back to her right to see a hail of plasma land just to the right of Cesar's position.

"Contact!" he shouted as she looked over his now kneeling figure to see a lizard like creature that easily towered over Dixon who was already a big man. It held what looked like a plasma rifle and stood on two legs as it fired once more at Cesar and missed melting the cactus behind him. She tried assisting him, but her shot landed wide right as the AK wasn't as accurate as it's M16 counterpart.

"Laying down suppressive fire!" shouted Cesar as he unloaded a three round burst from his M16 that hit the lizard creature once in the chest leaving a gaping hole as it screeched in pain.

"Somebody flank him!" he shouted as he lowered his rifle.

"I'm on it!" shouted Cian as he popped out of the dropship's right exit and posted up behind a small pile of rocks and against the side of the dropship. Despite the pounding headache, Cian managed to line up his rifle on the rock and stabilize it, before he launched two shots which both struck the lizard creature in its hole causing it to fall to the ground with purple blood flowing from it. Cian unleashed one more round into the creature's head to make sure it was dead.

"Enemy down!" shouted the Irishman as he clutched his pounding head.

With that said, Dixon and Ikeda rushed out and took cover behind two piles of rocks to Begovic's left with Dixon further away from her, while Rivera rushed out of the right door and ran to a large pile of rocks she could post up behind and had an open field of view of the right side of the desert.

Androv moved out through the left door, followed by Brandis as he took cover behind a small concrete structure that looked out of place for somewhere in the middle of the desert. Peeking around it, he spotted a humanoid like creature with grayish skin and was wearing a blue shirt that also possessed a plasma rifle similar to the lizard creature that was dead.

"Movement!" he shouted as his AK rattled off a shot that landed well short of the intended target. Brandis who was crouching out in the open also fired a shot, but the bullet struck just in front of the alien.

"Shit! I need to prop this up on something." he said as the alien fired a round that went over their heads and struck the top of the left door opening where Martín was standing in the doorway. He quickly kneeled down and rattled off two quick shots. The first sailed wide left, as the other landed right next to the alien's left foot. Sensing the danger, the alien ducked behind a giant rock structure that looked like a hill blocking him from their view.

Meanwhile, Ruiz had rushed passed the line established by Begovic and crouched down behind a small pile of rocks when he saw another of the blue-shirted gray aliens duck behind a cliff face as well. Raising his shotgun, he calmly waited for the alien to step back out.

His patience was rewarded as he leveled a blast that tore open the alien's abdomen, but that didn't stop the alien as it rushed forward and fired a blue burst of plasma into his right arm.

"AHHH! Fuck it burns!" he shouted as he dropped his shotgun and the alien raised its gun to fire again, but that was stopped as a shot rang out from behind him as the alien fell backwards with a bullet hole in its head courtesy of an M16.

"Nice shot Miyu!" commended Dixon as she nodded at him thanking him for the praise. Begovic then ran up with her medical kit already out as she worked to apply bandages and powder to the wound. The powdered burned more than the wound causing Ruiz to flinch as she scolded him for it.

"Hold still or I'll mess up!" she shouted as she held his arm forcefully in place to fix it.

"Oh yeah! Why don't you get shot and tell me it doesn't hurt!" he fired back as he winced in pain while she tightened the bandages.

"There you go little boy. And I'd rather not get shot at all. Look the UFO is behind the cliff the alien took cover behind." she said as she pointed over his shoulder to prove her point.

"Squad follow us!" she said as her and Manuel started moving forward with Ikeda not far behind. They were joined by Cesar, Fitzpatrick, and Rivera as they had gone around the right side of the cliff-like structures as they prepared to commence the two-pronged assault on the craft.

Androv moved to the cliff's right side as he looked around it carefully to spot two of the gray skinned creatures behind it. The one with the blue shirt they'd already encountered was on the right, while another one with a red shirt and looked to be carrying a plasma pistol and some research equipment was on the left. Before he could do anything else, the two started bolting to his right as he shouted out in surprise as he prepared to raise his rifle. But, before he could fire both aliens dropped simultaneously to the ground courtesy of bullets from a light machine gun and an assault rifle. The blue shirt wearing one was torn to pieces thanks to the machine gun bullets from Dixon, while the red shirt wearing one was dispatched by Martín's rifle rounds.

"Thank you for the assist comrades, but we still have a mission to complete." said Androv as he admitted to them that maybe they weren't so bad as he previously thought.

"You got that right mate!" exclaimed Dixon as he shouldered his machine gun.

"You three sweep up that way towards those other cliffs then swing to the right. It sounds as though the others have found the UFO if that shouting from Begovic was any indication. I'll try and meet up with them before they take all the fun." ordered Martín as he scurried off while the other three advanced cautiously with Androv on point, Dixon in the middle, and Brandis bringing up the rear. They experienced no other contact as they reached their destination and then headed over to the craft.

The other two groups were literally a few feet from the craft's door with Ruiz, Begovic, and Ikeda on the left side while Fitzpatrick, Cesar and Rivera were on the right side. They all toke a moment to analyze the craft which was gray in color, and was shaped like a smaller version of the Millennium Falcon from the recently released Star Wars™ film, but it was still bigger than a commercial airliner. The front part of the craft was completely engulfed in flames as black smoke billowed from it as portions of it continued to burn thanks to the dry air of the desert. Before any of them could think on it further, another blue shirted alien burst through the door and opened fire on Ruiz who was too slow to react which resulted in two plasma bolts tearing open his chest cavity as he was dead before hitting the ground. The squad then opened fire sans Rivera who was too close to be of any use with her Sniper rifle.

Begovic's shot missed the creature, while Cesar managed to hit it in the abdomen. Fitzpatrick then fired off two more rounds that ripped the alien's neck open as it fell to the ground clutching it's throat and eventually stopped moving. Ikeda's shot went into the UFO as she saw something moving inside still, but the door shut quickly causing it to ricochet off of it and into the sand.

Looking upon the now dead Ruiz, Begovic charged through the door and ran into the UFO looking to kill the threat still inside, but was met with three plasma rounds to the stomach and legs which caused her to fall backwards from the force of the shots. Looking inside, the team noticed another lizard creature's body and redshirt gray alien lying dead from wound sustained in the crash, while another blue shirt wearing alien was holding a still smoking plasma rifle as it looked at the now struggling Begovic on the ground. Looking up it was met with three rounds from Cesar that quickly tore apart it's head as it fell backwards dead.

The squad moved quickly as they pulled Begovic out of the burning UFO and started to apply first aid to her, as the rest of the squad showed up on the scene. Martín ran over and cradled Ruiz's dead body as he mourned his dead friend, while Dixon, Androv, and Brandis could only look on in sadness as they watched the efforts of Ikeda and Rivera to help the struggling Begovic to live.

"It really does hurt! Momma!" she cried out as the two continued to work on the wounds, but it was for not as she eventually stopped struggling and there was nothing but silence from the others as they mourned their fallen comrades.

Seeing as Martín was still recovering from his friend's death, Brandis took charge and gave them their orders.

"We still have a job to do guys, as much as we want to stop and mourn our friends. Martín take Ruiz's body back to the ship, Androv do the same with Begovic's. Dixon and Fitzpatrick gather up the alien corpses on the battlefield and do the same. Ikeda and Rivera go in there and see if you can find anything of value to bring back with us to base. Cesar and I will gather up the bodies inside and we'll radio command to see what they want to do with the UFO. Let's move!" he ordered as the squad moved out reluctantly to finish the job they'd been assigned.

== Back at Base ==

The Commander wasn't pleased with what had happened as he'd lost two soldiers in the battle. But he was somewhat satisfied that a message had been sent to the aliens proving that humanity could and would still fight. He then asked the Research head what he wanted to do with the UFO and he requested that they leave a coordinate beacon and they'd send another ship in to collect it. Following that, he looked over the available soldiers and selected two more to fill the gaps that had now been made with the deaths of Ruiz and Begovic.

'The first stone has been cast. Now how will the aliens respond to the new threat posed against them?' he thought as he finished the paperwork associated with his requests.

AN: And cut! That's a wrap on this chapter. Hope everybody loved it, and if you have any comments or criticism don't be afraid to leave a review or PM me about it. If you like the story don't be afraid to follow and favorite so you can be up to date on when I post new content. Also, the name Sandtrap was a homage to "The Xenonaut Project" as that was his base's name as well. Also, come check out my other stories if you want to read more XCOM or jump into the world of Charlie Brown as he makes his way through the Major Leagues. Well that'll do it for this installment, this is "The Nasty One" signing off.

- PRAK #TheNastyOne